Australian pacer Starc set for IPL return

In 2018, the Kolkata Knight Riders had purchased Australian yorker specialist Mitchell Starc for Rs 9.4 crore but he had to back out of the edition due to injury concerns. However he opted out of subsequent auctions. 

“Certainly, money is a big aspect of it. It’s hard enough juggling one cricket schedule with three formats, let alone when my wife plays cricket on a completely different schedule as well. So, that’s something that I take into consideration heavily, being able to spend time together and I guess in the instance of the IPL, that comes during a Cricket Australia leave period,” said Starc as quoted by Cricbuzz when asked about his absence. 

However, he is set to enrol himself in the mini auction ahead of the next edition of IPL and provided teams show interest, he would participate in the next edition. “Look, it's been eight years. I'm definitely going back next year.Amongst other things, it's a great lead-up to the T20 World Cup.So a good opportunity to see if anyone's interested in the IPL, then lead into the T20 World Cup. And it's somewhat of a quiet winter next year in comparison to this winter, so I think this is a perfect opportunity to put my name in.” Starc stated in an interaction with the Willow Talk Cricket Podcast. 

The Chennai Super Kings, Sunrisers Hyderabad and Royal Challengers would likely bid hgh for him as they are in need to rejuvenate their pace attack. Starc’s last appearance in IPL was with the Royal Challengers Bangalore in 2015.